A Sunlit Spring
by CrayolaMarkers
Summary: DISCONTINUED, due to being an appallingly dreadful pile of crap. Thanks if you were a reader!
1. Prologue: An Invitation

**A/N: Yes! There IS a sequel to A Frosty Winter and A Golden Autumn. A Sunlit Spring. I was going to do Sunny...but that's the name of the prostitute in The Catcher in the Rye, so I decided against it. I can't really tell you the story without giving you something first, though. In real life, it would be on pure white paper with glittering silver ribbon skimming the top and silver gilt edges, and would be in a clear vellum envelope with multicolored pressed plumeria blossoms tossed in for a sweet scent and a beautiful decoration...but this is the internet. I'll give you a hint: Annabeth didn't design these. Here. You're invited.**

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_The children of her grace Aphrodite,_

_Particularly Miss Silena Beauregard, request the honor of your presence_

_at the marriage of their dear cousin_

 _**Annabeth Michelle Chase**_

_with _

_**Mr. Perseus Cole Jackson**_

 _Sunday, the twenty-second of May_

_Two thousand and ten_

_At seven thirty in the evening_

_Myrtos Beach_

_Kefalonia_

_ Greece_

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	2. A Little Bird Told Me

**A/N: Dundundundaaaaa! Spring's here! I think Silena's turned out to be pretty popular (I like her, anyway :D), so she's baaack. And a little shameless promotion here: first, if you like Thuke angst as much as you like Percabeth fluff (and you should like Percabeth fluff, or else...leave.), then PLEASE check out "Don't Look Back" by Katako-Chan**. **It's wonderful and angsty and deep and you'll bawl over in raw emotion.**

**I also FINALLY got around to uploading my original fic! I'd love it if you took a peek! It's really cool because it's like eighteen pages long in one chapter! If you want to see, it's called "Becoming Angel". Just click on that author link!! **

**Usually I don't want to post other stories in author's notes...but the Thuke one was AMAZING and I worked really, really long and hard on my original fic, so.....yep.**

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Silena Beauregard has the biggest capacity of anyone I know to be so incredibly annoying, it makes you want to call off your big white dream wedding and elope.

Really.

"Hey...Annabeth!" she yelped in my right ear...loudly. It was early April, so the cool breezes and sweet-smelling dew on the grass usually lifted my spirits. Plus, our numbers at Camp Half-Blood were growing, and we had a rough schedule for training ourselves and tracking down lost half-bloods every day. We'd even grown a stash of moly plants, cut and ready to use in an elixir we were making to try and separate Luke from Kronos. I should have been in an excellent mood.

And thanks to Silena, I was instead ready to scream into a pillow.

"Silena!" I snapped, turning briefly away from the small sprig in the ground. "Is this really necessary?"

"Yeah, we're sorta busy," the glossy-haired Kathy, the oldest and most capable daughter of Demeter I'd found so far, agreed. But she ruined it by smiling. "I like your hair, Silena."

Silena beamed and stroked her curls. "Thanks, I tried those foam rollers I read about in _Cosmo_."

I buried my face in my hands. "Silena! Kathy is about ten minutes away from possibly growing a Blood Orchid, and she needs me to keep an eye on the stem while she's doing it! _What_ can possibly more important right now?"

"Psh," she sniffed. "You've been working on the Blood Orchid for months. It's not happening. Give it up and send a team to go find some instead."

"We already sent a team," Kathy pointed out. "They're looking for wolfsbane right now, remember?"

Silena shivered angrily. "Well, forget about the Blood Orchid for five seconds! This is of vital importance to our future!"

I gave her a bored look. "Last time you said that, it was about wedding invitations. And we were _this close_ to growing a Kingsfoil flower."

"But this really _is_ important," she took my hand and tugged me up without my consent. "And you weren't going to get a Kingsfoil flower anyway."

I snarled, but knew I'd lost this argument. "Keep at it, Kathy," I called over my shoulder.

"Okay," she nodded, her eyes still firm on the sprig. But only a few seconds later, it turned black and shriveled. "Gods! Not _again!"_

I glared at Silena.

"That was not my fault," she emphasized.

"Just show me the super-important thing," I sighed. Which couldn't have made her happier.

"Okay, so I've been working on this _all week_," she said, her excitement building as she led me into the marble and mother-of-pearl walls of the Aphrodite cabin--a cabin that lately, I'd seen _way_ too much of. She tugged on a curtain close to her bed, and yanked it back to reveal...

"Voila!" she sang. "Your choices of bridesmaid dresses."

I blinked a few times at her, then turned around for the door.

"ANNABETH!" she shouted, seizing me by the scruff of my neck. Which _hurt_. Her nails are like these perfectly filed claws with an extra layer of diamond-hard Sally Hansen.

"I don't care what my bridesmaids wear!" I said, exasperated. "Besides, remember who my maid of honor is?!"

"Thalia is going to have to cooperate," she said icily.

"You're turning into Bridezilla," I said. "And you're not even the bride."

"Will you please just _look_?"

"Not now! I've got an elixir to oversee!" I told her, pushing the silk curtain aside and heading out the door when a low, rough rumble stopped me.

"Was that...thunder?" Silena murmured behind me. The always-blue skies were turning dark and coated with clouds, swirling into a scary-looking storm.

"Not possible," I whispered. "Our borders are still strong."

Thunder crashed again, more strong and sudden than before, and more campers stopped their training, forging, or growing to look. Murmurs fluttered around the camp that, just a second ago, had been chatting almost confidently. But instead of the crack of lightning I expected, something else drifted down from the vortex of black: a misty rainbow.

Silena's eyes met mine. "Iris!" we whispered in unison.

And we were right.

The instant we figured it out, a light, pure sound, like windchimes, twinkled from the beam of light at the top of the rainbow. And skimming the rainbow with her bare toes, a fair-skinned girl, looking only about fifteen, slid down, laughing. She had long blonde hippie-hair with a multicolored circlet, straight as a ruler, and wore the most shimmery, floaty dress you've ever seen, in every color of the, well, rainbow.

The weird part: a white canvas strap across her chest with about thirty-six different phones and pagers, including four iPhones, three Blackberries, two RAZRs, and something that looked so futuristic I didn't even want to guess.

She slid to a careful stop on the grass, paying no attention to the thunderclouds above our heads. "Oh, hello!" she giggled, dancing toward Silena and me. "Now, you're Annabeth?" she asked Silena.

She smiled and opened her mouth, but I beat her to it. "That's me," I smiled, raising a hand.

"Ooh! A special message for _you_, then!" she beamed, until six of her phones buzzed at once. "Oh, fiddlesticks. Just a second," she muttered, glancing down at her strap. Her fingers flew across all of the screens and number pads at once, blurring, going at godspeed. I don't even think she was typing out full messages, just putting in letters in each phone for a few seconds and somehow miraculously getting them in the right order.

"Phew. I love those touch screens," she exulted. "So much easier on the fingertips. I should give one to Dawn when I get the chance."

I nodded, playing along. "Yeah, those are great. Um, not that we don't want you here, but are you here because there's something wrong with Iris Messaging? 'Cause it usually works great at camp."

"No, IM-ing works fine," the blond hippie assured us, smiling until she remembered the rest of her sentence. "Well, except for some people."

"Who're old and can't use the internet?" Silena piped up.

"Shut up, Silena," I said.

"Who's that?" asked Kathy, who'd abandoned the wilted failure of an orchid and joined us.

Iris sighed and turned to Kathy. "People who've betrayed the gods. IM-ing won't work for them, of course."

"Then that means..." I whispered in horror.

"You have a message from Luke!" Kathy squeaked.

Silena looked absolutely furious. "_Luke?!_"

Looking at Iris right then was the first time I'd ever seen a rainbow look glum. "Good guess," she mumbled. "He can't use IMs just like the Titans can't, so the gods have come to an agreement. Since I'm their big messenger, I have to be neutral as long as Kronos remains strong. So I can take truces and stuff back and forth between sides. They made me swear on the River Styx."

Thunder crashed overhead again.

"An oath of neutrality," I repeated. "Well, tactically...it's a good thing."

"You're carrying a message from _Luke?!_" Silena fumed. "NO! Annabeth's about to get married, and she can't be reminded of her tragic unrequited romantic past with--"

"Shut up, Silena!" Kathy and I said.

Iris scrunched up her dress nervously and sighed. "Your message is thus: Luke Castellan requests Annabeth Chase's presence at his stronghold next Monday. You are to come to the back of Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. You are then to go to South Sixth Street and Sansom, and present your eyeprint at the mail slot of the third door on the right. Come alone."

Once she was done, Iris wiped away a single, sparkling freshwater rain tear. "I'm sorry. Good luck, Annabeth."

And then she whisked up the rainbow again, vacuuming up the storm clouds with her.

"Did _anybody_ get all of that?!" I cried in despair.

"Ooh! I did!" Silena bounced up and down, handing me a perfect transcript of Iris' message on a pale pink post-it note.

"Thanks," I smiled weakly as I re-read it. _Come alone_. "He wants me to come to his stronghold," I repeated, deep in thought. I turned to face the half-bloods who were already staring at us. "Guys! Do you know what this _means_?"

"Of course," Silena nodded. "It means Luke's not getting any action now that he's fused with that creepy Kronos guy, and he's invited you over to--"

"SHUT UP, SILENA!" everybody yelled.

I shook my head. "It means," I held up the post-it triumphantly. "We actually have a chance to use this elixir."

"That's awesome!" Connor Stoll cried.

"If it were done," Kathy mumbled. "We've got one ingredient out of...four."

"We'll finish it," I said firmly. "We have to. I need all Demeter kids working double time. Other cabins, we're going to pitch in, do their chores, everything. Demeter Cabin, you're off training this week."

"Yessssss!" I heard scattered around me.

"You've got Kingsfoil and Blood Orchid, and maybe wolfsbane if we don't get it back from our team," I told them. "We _will_ make this thing in time."

"But even if we do," Silena murmured. "You still have to go."

My spirits fell about two and a half yards. "Yeah," I agreed grimly.

"Aren't you scared, Annabeth?"

My reflex was to lie--to be a leader, to say, _No, Silena, not at all. See, nothing to be afraid of but fear itself, yadda yadda ya_. But instead, I gripped the post-it tighter and nodded.

"Yep," I said. "Worse than that time at the Arachnid Museum."


	3. Starting to Sprout

**A/N: Hi again. I love and missed you guys! I'm back from Europe, YIPPEE! Enjoy if this is any good, and please, by all means, TELL ME IF MY WRITING HAS DEGRADED TO A PILE OF CRAP, AND I'LL WORK ON IT. Stupid French language has made my English-speaking skills practically dissolve.**

**Also I'm well aware that I disappeared for ages. SAHHH-REE.**

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I slid low to the ground, catching my breath as I heard the footsteps grew louder. I'd only have to wait a few more seconds, at this rate. The grass brushed against my thighs, creating an itch impossible, at the moment, to scratch. The approaching campers' chatter grew louder...I only had a few more seconds to wait. The band had just finished a week-long trek into the surrounding wilderness, and I had to surprise one person in particular.

Successfully hiding behind Thalia's tree on Half-Blood Hill is a lot harder than you'd think.

But it was all worth it when I caught my first glimpse of him. You know...dark messy hair, eyes like mini-emeralds, a loopy smile and confident swagger. I guess there were a lot of men like that out there, but when my eyes met this particular man...I sprang into action.

"Hiiii-_ya_!" I cried, leaping on Percy Jackson's back in the greatest welcome-back-tackle in history.

He stumbled twice before craning his neck back to see me. "Wise Girl?" he laughed, hitching me up on his shoulders and piggy-backing me down the hill. "What've you been up to?"

I shrugged, enjoying the ride. "Just getting a lot more done than you and your group."

"Oh, really?" he asked, his voice cocky. "Because _we_ just brought back six ounces of wolfsbane."

"WHAT?!" I yelped, so surprised that I bounced on his shoulders and I heard something crack.

"Ow," he muttered.

"Sorry. But you got it? You really got the wolfsbane?"

"Six ounces," he reminded me. "And you already had moly and got kingsfoil this week, right?"

"Right..." I said.

He paused, my piggyback ride stopping momentarily. "So that just leaves--"

"PERRRRR-CEEEEEEEEE!" a high voice sang--or rather, screeched--from across camp.

Percy looked at me patiently.

I straightened up, lifting my chin like a general. "It's Silena," I said. I pointed to the grassy space in front of the cabins. "Onward! To the beauty queen!"

So we sped off into the sunset...where Silena and Kathy told us the big news.

I'm sure you're not surprised, but I sure was.

Kathy was practically screaming with delight. "We've finally, finally, _finally _grown it!"

"THE BLOOD ORCHID!" exclaimed Lorraine.

Silena just stood, wide-eyed while she held the deep red flower, root ball and all, in her cupped, manicured hands. "Oh, my gods, guys. _We did it_."

"Um, _we _did it, Mighty Aphrodite," Kathy and Lorraine said, gingerly plucking the red orchid from Silena's hands.

"Who cares?" Percy said. "You know what this means!"

"Yeah," agreed Kathy. "You can make that elixir."

I nodded quickly. "Take this over to the Apollo cabin with the moly, kingsfoil, and wolfsbane, and tell them to get mixing the elixir, stat. They're the best at healing and medicine and all that."

Percy sighed contentedly. "Now all we need is a way to get it to Luke."

Kathy, Lorraine, and Silena took a subtle glance my direction. I shook my head urgently.

"Okay..." Percy folded his arms suspiciously. "What?"

The three girls looked at me pleadingly. I raised my shoulders in the tiniest shrug--like, _I have no idea what to tell him either!_

"Will you please quit communicating with looks and tell me what is going on?" Percy demanded.

I exhaled in defeat. "Hey, Seaweed Brain, maybe I'd better tell you in the Big House."

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I ended up telling him the story, everything. About how Iris came last week, about Luke...about how I was supposed to go there tomorrow...everything.

Let's just say he didn't take it so well.

"Wait, wait, wait," he interrupted me near the end, when I was talking about how Silena wrote down directions. "You're saying you're _actually considering this?!"_

"Um...yes?" I said. "You tell me how many other opportunities we'll get."

His face morphed into a scowling pout, like a five-year-old. "Whatever."

"Whatever what?"

"Well, can't we wait and do something that doesn't involve just you?"

"What," I said, a little piqued. "You don't trust me to do it right?"

"That's not it," he said. He was biting his lip, trying to stay calm. "I mean...well, come on, Annabeth. What do you think Luke wants with you?"

I caught my breath. "Well," I started slowly. "He probably is just going to use me to find out what the other demigods are planning."

"He could have asked any one of us that."

"All right, then, my wisdom and advice!"

Percy snorted.

"Come on!" I said, exasperated.

He just muttered, "I think he has something a little more _friendly_ in mind..."

"You know what, Percy, it's my funeral! Get over it."

"Like you possibly never coming back has _no _effect on me," he said. His green eyes were trying to look angry, gleaming with the last rays of molten gold sunlight behind me, but they couldn't. All I saw was fear.

Fear for _me_.

He drew a sharp breath and said, "What exactly do you expect me to do if you're _dead_? Or, anyway, captured for life?"

"If you need wisdom," I said, trying to remain scowly, untouched by his oh-woe-is-me gaze. "You can go to the Oracle."

Percy sighed. "Yeah, but can the oracle do this?" He caught me by my waist and spun me around so I was leaning back dramatically in his arms like part of a tango. I groaned in disgust.

"Oh, gross. I really hope not," I muttered, but smiled and kissed him anyway. And kissed him again. And, okay, maybe just one more, because he was really warm and his lips were really soft and...

"Oh, excuse me," a sarcastic voice said from the doorway. " I thought you were talking strategy."

Percy dropped me, causing me to yelp in surprise as I hit the carpet. "We were!"

"That last move was an unexpected bonus," I said under my breath, rubbing my back where I'd landed.

Kathy shook her head. "Well, when you're done practicing your kissing expertise, Beckendorf's got something to show you."

She left the Big House, muttering about private matters and PDA.

Percy smiled. "I know she's pissed off, but I'm not sorry one bit." He bent down and planted a kiss on my lips, making sparks run down my spine.

"Beckendorf," I mused, flopping onto my stomach. "What do you think he's got?"

Percy gave me a hand up, leading me out the door and to the forges. "How 'bout we find out?"

The forges were the same as always: smokey, blackened, with fires blazing left and right. What was _different_ than usual, though, was the fact that, like, eight billion people had crowded around to watch.

"Hey," Percy and I said to Beckendorf after pushing through the half-blood horde. "You wanted to see us?"

"Big news," he announced, puffing out his chest. "The elixir...is DONE."

"Thanks to _us_!" a new Apollo kid named Michael Yew added. This was met with hoops and hollers of agreement from the rest of his cabin.

Beckendorf ignored him. "But, more importantly, we've made a way for you to keep it undetected." He rummaged around on the work table behind him. Finally, he pulled out what seemed to be a beautiful charm bracelet--glinting a bronzey gold, with little charms like Apollo's lyre, Hermes' winged shoes, the owl of Athena, Poseidon's trident, Zeus' lightning bolt, and...

"What's this one?" Percy asked, pointing to a strange little charm. Not nearly as recognizable as any of the others, it seemed to be just a...box. I mean, okay, it had little carvings and stuff on it, but mostly just a little golden-bronzey cube, with a tiny latch.

"Well, it's either Pandora's box-slash-jar," I said slowly. "Or it's..."

"Something much cooler," Beckendorf grinned evilly. "Shield your eyes, guys, this can get a little bright."

I had no idea what he was talking about. Then he opened the celestial bronze box charm.

Blue-white light streamed in a piercing line from the little treasure box, nearly blinding us all for a moment before it faded. "It's the elixir," Percy breathed.

"Well spotted," I told him.

He stuck his tongue out at me.

"You wear this, Annabeth, and we get the elixir to Luke," Beckendorf said, swinging the charm bracelet in his huge dark hands. "You wear this, and we win."


	4. Blame it on the Rain

**A/N: Typical. I disappear for months then update twice in a row.**

_CR-CRASHH._

_BOOOOHHMMM._

Splendid.

So the night before my departure for Luke's stronghold, the skies decided to go psycho and create a crazy, black-funnel-cloud, ridiculous, straight-out-of-_Twister_ thunderstorm. Of course.

I missed the days when our weather protection worked.

Besides the fact that it was thunderstorming, it was also, like, four in the morning. So much for getting sleep before the big day.

Argus, who'd reappeared at camp a month ago to everyone's relief, was supposed to drive me into Philadelphia (where I'd somehow evaporate into Kronos' castle) at about...five o' clock AM. I had sixty minutes to pull myself together, because right now, I was freaked out enough that my teeth started chattering. Loudly. And if you think my brothers and sisters would be kind and understanding about this, you are sorely mistaken. I got no less than six pillows in the face from them for keeping them awake with my chattering teeth.

Whatever. If I got one more pillow thrown at my nose, they were all getting the pegasi stable pooper-scooper duty for three months. Without gloves.

I cupped my clammy palms over my ears to block out the terrible thunder and, since I was scared, I did the mature thing. I burrowed my chilly self deep under the covers and curled up in the fetus position.

I knew I was being dumb, but hey. Anything to make the rolling thunder die.

"It's hardly there, Annabeth," I whispered to the sheets and pillow case, echoing the exact words Percy usually said to me during a storm. "Just background music for the gods."

Somehow, the words came out wrong when I said them. All thin and smokey, whereas Percy managed to make them warm and soft, like flannel pajamas fresh out of the dryer.

I bit my lip to slow down the chattering and squeezed my eyes tightly shut. My real mother didn't talk to me often, but one time, she'd told me why some children of Athena hate thunder. Athena was Zeus' favorite child, and thunder was the sound of her father scolding her, disappointed or angry in his favorite daughter. When her children heard the same sound, it could be terrifying, if they had the same fear of failure, if they were the kind of person who regularly had tons of pressure weighing down on them.

I guess that was me.

_BOOOOOOOOOOOHHMM._

"Go away!" I snapped under my breath, burrowing deeper in my covers.

"Sorry," a warm voice whispered, obviously offended. "But you could be a little nicer when you're getting me to leave. I got soaked walking here."

I tore the covers off, my teeth still chattering, and felt the color return to my cheeks when I saw him. "Not _you_," I said urgently, pulling him up by the arm onto the top bunk. "Don't go, okay? If you go I'll kill you."

"I know," he smiled broadly, his teeth a porcelain white in the darkness as he hopped up on the top mattress. "Just wanted to make sure I was wanted."

_CR-CR-CRASHHHBOOOHMM!_

"Quit!" I yelped, flinching again, only this time my spaz attack landed me on top of Percy instead of the mattress.

"Shhh," he soothed me, stroking the top of my bedhead hair. I didn't even care that his hand was sopping wet. "Background music for the gods, remember?"

I breathed in deep--saltwater, Christmas trees, and river rocks. Very Percy-smelling. "I remember," I said.

"What do you want, Wise Girl?" he whispered.

"For this storm to be over."

"You know what I mean."

I breathed slowly as I thought about it. "I want peace with the gods and titans, I guess," I started. "But that's not what I think about. Because what I think about all the time now...I want Luke back, and Thalia. Even though I know she's happy where she is. And I want Chiron to be here, and Grover and even my Dad and stepmom. I want family. I want the secrets to stop. And the war to stop." I turned to see Percy's face. "And I want you, Seaweed Brain. Every day. I don't want us to go on missions knowing there's a fifty percent chance one of us won't come back."

He lifted my chin up. "But you're going to anyway, soldier."

"Yeah," I said, rolling my eyes.

_BOOOOOOOOHHHMMMM!_

Of course, at the sound of thunder, I shriveled back again, but he just held on tighter. "It's hardly there, Annabeth," he told me matter-of-factly.

I nodded and sighed in relief, soaking up the comfort here. It was fine, and I didn't have to worry. Safe as always. Then my eyelids shot up as a realization piqued my memory.

"Percy, I'm gonna ask you to promise me something."

"Sure."

I gripped my celestial bronze bracelet tight in my icy fist. "Don't come after me. I know you, Percy. That's exactly what you would do. So I'm making you promise me: don't."

He furrowed his eyebrows at me.

"Promise," I prodded him.

"You didn't _know_ I was going to do that..." he muttered.

"Were you?"

"Yeah."

I gave him a look. "It's not because I don't think you're strong enough. You're a better fighter than anyone at this camp, especially me. But there's no way to tell for sure if you're better than Luke is now. And," I looked down at the box on my wrist. "I don't want you anywhere near him if it's not for sure."

"Picky, picky, picky," he said breezily. "Don't we have a life-or-death battle once or twice a year?"

"Seaweed Brain."

"Wise Girl."

He sighed. "Fine," he said, holding up his left hand and pressing it against mine, my fingers looking slim and small next to his. "I promise."

I curled my fingers down over his. "But no worries. If I see you when I'm over at Luke's, you won't have to worry about him catching you. I'll shoot you first."

"Thanks," he said. "Nice way of putting it, by the way. _When I'm over at Luke's_. Like he's having a barbeque instead of an evil statutory rape festival."

I yanked my hand back, slinging my small knapsack over my shoulders. "I'm leaving."

"_Hey_!"

I hopped off the bunkbeds. "It's already four-fifty-five. Be quiet on the way out, the rest of the cabin's sleeping."

"You're just mad about the barbeque thing," he said.

"It is not about the barbeque thing. It's about the I'm-about-to-miss-my-ride thing."

"It's still raining," he insisted.

I just rolled my eyes and pushed my way out the door to the loud, _thwack_ing downpour. "There's not any thunder, stupid." I kept marching to the crest of the hill, but I could still totally tell that he was stalking right behind me.

"Hey!" he called over the fading rain. "Wise Girl? I forgot to tell you something!"

I really _did _need to get moving. Now that I was close to the crest of the hill, I could see a rusty camp SUV parked at the foot. Which, in essence, meant that I didn't have time for the usual arguing with Mr. Know-it-All.

I had just reached the car door when someone starting tapping my shoulder incessantly.

I sighed loudly. "I don't have time to talk, Seaweed Brai--" I spun around and stopped mid-sentence. The accused tapper wasn't Percy at all, but Thalia. And she was an absolute wreck.

Her normally heavily-lined eyes glowed a morbid red, her normally sleek hair a tangled mess. She had a crazed look on her face...which wasn't really different from usual, actually. She always has a crazed look on her face. But this time, it was less like _I-will-set-fire-to-your-village-of-animal-torturers_ and more like _stay-back-I've-got-mad-cow-disease._

"Thalia," I greeted weakly.

"You. Can't. Kill. Him," she forced, wincing as if every word stabbed her throat with a sword. "I don't care what it takes."

"Who, Luke?" I asked.

"_OF COURSE HIM."_

_"_Why would I kill him?" I asked, unfortunately not realizing how stupid it sounded.

She took a violent grip on my shoulders and started shaking them. "I can't keep going if you kill him, okay?! I won't let you. I will literally go insane!"

"_Go_ insane...?" I repeated, wondering if it was already a little late for that.

She let go, probably realizing how ridiculous she was acting. "This doesn't mean I've agreed to do that...kissy thing, you know. Just _bring him back alive_."

"Or you'll roast me on a spit like a suckling pig," I said, nodding. "I get it."

She huffed a huge breath. "Exactly. Now get going. I'd offer our help, but I'm sure he'd sniff the Hunters and me out in a second."

You could tell she didn't want to refer to _he_ by name. "And you're right," I said, pulling her into a quick hug. "Take care, Thalia. Just don't let Luke keep you from leading the Hunters like normal."

Thalia's crazy-girl image vanished in a second, totally replaced by the cool aide to Artemis she usually was. "I wouldn't count on it, Wise Girl," she sniffed, pulling out her bow. "I've got to hunt. And you've got another visitor, anyway."

"Another visitor," I sighed as she bounded away in long, graceful leaps. As soon as she had disappeared over the crest of the hill, I spun around. "Make it quick, Percy."

"No problem," he said pulling something from his back pocket. "Just a going-away present."

He dropped what looked like a charm--a tiny red sword on a bronze backing--into my palm.

"_Seaweed_ Brain," I muttered, holding the charm up. Was that _coral_ it was made of? "What is this, for the bracelet? What does it do?"

"Just a reminder," he shrugged. "That's a mini Riptide, there. Hopefully you'll remember you're not supposed to die."

I fastened it on my bracelet-of-death, then looked up at Percy, biting my lip to suppress a smile. "You are so weird."

"And so are you," he sighed, opening the sedan door and pushing me in. "That's why we tend to get along."

I sat in the already rain-spotted, threadbare car seat, giving a half-hearted smile to Argus and reaching for my seatbelt. But just as my fingers brushed the metal belt, something stopped me.

I clicked the car door open one last time, taking hold of Seaweed Brain's shoulders and kissing him lightly on the nose. "_Stay back_," I reminded him before jumping back in the car.

Then we sped off toward my probable doom.


	5. Demon Seed

**I'm sick.**

**As usual, I'm so sorry that I haven't updated since the Mesozoic Era. If you forgot what happened, and why you're getting a Story Alert e-mail for this, here's the story in a nutshell:**

**It's that seasons fanfic, the third part to a Frosty Winter (Percy and Annabeth get fluffy during Christmas break and become boyfriend/girlfriend) which has a second part, a Golden Autumn (the badly written fanfic where Annabeth remeets up with Percy and they all go to Europe to get Camp Half-Blood back, and Percy and Annabeth get engaged). In this one, everybody's at camp and working on an elixir to separate Luke from Kronos. And then Annabeth gets "invited" by Kronos to come to his place. Which is basically a great time for Annabeth to use that elixir they just finished on him. She's supposed to wait at the back of Independence Hall for her ride to pick her up and carry her to Kronos' citadel.**

**Which leads us to...**

**

* * *

  
**

A metallic voice crackled, "Your chauffeur will be here momentarily."

That's what the sleek steel speaker told me after I'd practically squished my eyeball by pressing it up to the eyeprint reader--that is, the little box I'd found at the back of this abandoned brick townhouse in Philadelphia. I honestly had no idea what Kronos (I would NOT think of him as Luke) was thinking when he'd ordered this high-tech security stuff. It wasn't like he needed it. If an intruder managed to find his stupid stronghold by themselves, they'd probably have their scalp sliced off faster than they could say "sorry, wrong address".

I shivered at the crackly metal voice and leaned against the faded New England-ish brick, not quite managing to get comfortable. Independence Hall loomed a block away, almost teasing me with how small and insignificant I was in comparison. _Oh, you think you're all that, Annabeth?_ the building seemed to say. _You think you can poison Kronos single-handedly? Well, just take a look at me. You're _tiny_. TINY!!!_

So true, too. Even Argus knew it. When he dropped me off here in Philadelphia a few minutes ago, instead of smiling his confident, close-lipped smile and nodding me off, he blinked two long, soulful blinks with his two hundred eyes and slouched, shaking his head like he was dropping me off at a funeral.

_My_ funeral. Probably.

I really was tiny.

As much as I hated to admit it, Percy was right. He was right about a lot of things. Namely, I really _didn't_ know what Luke wanted with me. For all I knew, this was just going to be a "let's-kill-Annabeth-in-some-dramatic-and-unnecessary-manner" ceremony.

The other thing that was worrying me had nothing to do with failure, but everything to do with our success. Let's say I actually got Luke to gulp down the elixir and dragged him back to Camp Half-Blood. Then what? All I would have done was buy us some time.

Camp was still in a state of quiet anarchy. We only had half the people we used to before Kronos' monsters stormed us about a year ago, when Chiron had to fake his death (and Percy's) and all the half-bloods got scattered around the country, back to their homes.

It was a sucky time back _then_. Basically, the only things we'd done so far was to...

a.) Stop Kronos from getting his hands on a big ball of Callistan energy, and

b.) Revive camp and find Argos. Woohoo.

I had zero plans on what to do if I actually got Luke.

--------------------

Just as my uselessness began to dawn on me, I heard a distinct _thwack-thwack-thwack_ing noise cut through the air above my head. I squinted as I peered into the thin spring sunlight, where--no joke--a pair of powerful helicopter blades were slicing through the wind.

Yeah. Kronos sent a helicopter to pick me up.

I backed up to let it land, wondering how the Mist was going to cover this up. This wasn't any ordinary chopper; it looked like it was shaped from solid gold, its surface gleaming softly in the dappled sun. Its doors were studded with ridiculously huge dome-shaped gems, and it seemed to leave a puffing trail of clouds behind it as it came down. Its blades (also a sparkling gold) whirred to a stop, and the pilot flipped a switch and stepped outside.

Obviously, I thought, this kind of helicopter had to be driven by somebody _completely_ usual, normal, just another minion...

"Miss _An-_nabeth!" the man exulted, lifting his headphones over his head and gathering me up in a big bear hug against his big barrel chest. "It's been ages!"

"Ack," I choked, giving him a pat on the back. "Um, hi there, sir?"

"Oh, of _course_ you don't remember me," he said, then extended his hand. "I'm Zephyr. Carried you to your father in a golden baby basket."

_Well_, _now this makes sense_, I thought, shaking his massive hand with a smile.

He nodded toward his helicopter. "Come on in. You're expected in a couple of hours at his, er, Majesty's banquet."

"I didn't sign up for a banquet," I grimaced.

"Sorry, that's what his Royal Hiney has planned," he took me by the arms and launched me into the passenger seat, handing me a pair of noise-cancelling headphones. "Put those on, and we'll be off."

I yanked them over my tangled blond hair, half-smiling. "Thanks. Would you happen to know what he wants with me?"

His eyes twinkled, but not in a merry St. Nicolas way. This was more of a somber, melachony twinkle. "That, missy, is classified information," he said seriously as the helicopter whipped into action. "My lips are zipped."

But, as I discovered over the next hour of the ride, his lips weren't usually zipped. He was actually the most talkative god I think I'd ever had a conversation with. It was awesome, even when he started gossiping about which gods had the most human girlfriends and which goddesses he thought were hot. He even knew a little gossip about Camp Half-Blood. He liked asking about the various camp couples: Grover and Juniper, Clarisse and Chris, me and Percy, Silena and Beckendorf, even Rachel and Nico.

Wait, Rachel and Nico?!

"Oh dear, oh dear, Miss Annabeth," Zephyr sighed, cutting off my question about any Rachel-Nico relationship. "It's too bad, but I have to drop you off sometime. This is our stop--er, _your_ stop."

I snuck a peak out the window, at what was surely Kronos' castle of doom or whatever.

Holy Hera. It was like looking into a gothic novel brought to life: an ugly fortress with tons of pointy towers, made of bronze and black marble, overlooking a stormy sea. I'm _sure_ the sea was always stormy. This is Kronos we're talking about. There is no such thing as "a nice day for the beach" in his perfect world.

Anchored next to the craggy cliff of the fortress was the _Princess Andromeda_, Kronos' ship, its sails thrashing wildly in the wind. Great.

"So, Zephyr," I said. "Want to come to the banquet with me?"

He laughed without his usual humor. "No can do, missy."

"It'll be fun."

"I'm afraid I'm not allowed," he reminded me. "But you go on. Have a blast. Knock 'em dead."

"Literally?" I asked.

"Of course," he said, landing the chopper precariously on the best-looking patch of the stone he could find on the cliff. "Don't worry, Miss Annabeth. We'll be watching over you, us gods. We don't just forget."

He left me with a sad smile, just like Argus had. Why was everybody acting like I was already toe-tagged and in the morgue? I was still alive, thank you very much!

Anyway.

it took a while to hike all the way to the huge, oaken double-doors of the fortress. I was getting a little creeped out, to tell you the truth. It was only, what, April? This was the kind of mansion that belonged strictly in a Halloween setting.

I glanced down at my charm bracelet and its little elixir box. Giving the coral Riptide a little kiss, I inhaled deeply and pounded the iron door knocker twice.

The door began to creak open _immediately_. I looked around the edge to see who'd opened it...but nobody was there. It had swung open all on its own when I'd knocked.

Okay. Okay. There are no such things as ghosts. The minotaur and vicious seal-dogs and flesh-eating horses might exist, but not ghosts. Right?

I gulped and took three quick steps in, my hand floating to where I'd stashed my bronze knife in my jeans pocket. The place was stone, stone, and more stone. Like Hogwarts, minus all the cheerful flickering torchlights, and wizardry, and magic.

And ghosts. Minus the ghosts, too.

"YOU! CHASE GIRL!"

I jumped about ten feet in the air, whipping my knife from my pocket, when I heard the scratchy female voice shout at me. I'd been so convinced that I was alone, any sound was a shock. I flipped behind me and saw who was talking to me--an _empousai_, a dragon lady. A kind of ugly dragon lady. I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but it was a fact: here was a woman who really, truly needed some plastic surgery. Or a paper bag.

I yanked the knife behind my back when I saw her. "Um, yeah," I said lamely. "That's me."

She looked me over critically, her scaly fingers tapping her chin. "What a waste," she groaned, slithering toward me dispassionately. "Stupid. Slow. Not pretty in the least. I could make a _much_ better consort for his Majesty..."

"Wait," I said. "Consort?"

She flicked her long, forked tongue at me disapprovingly. "Stupid child," she hissed, tossing me a heavy bundle of something dark red and velvety. Some kind of cloth.

I lifted one edge of the fabric. "What am I supposed to do with these?" I asked, still sidetracked by her _consort_ remark. If it was what I thought it meant, I was in _huge_ trouble. "Dress his windows up, or what?"

"They're not _curtains_, they're_ clothes_," she screeched. "Everyone knew you'd be arriving in dirty _civilian_ garments. You should be gracious that his Majesty remembered to order a dress made for you."

I gripped the dress more tightly. "I came here to talk to Kronos, not play dress up! Show me to him _now_," I said, adding, as an afterthought: "Please."

The empousai glowered at me and flicked her hand in my direction. Something cold and metallic shot toward me, piercing the bundle of nerves near my shoulder and making me scream a short cry of pain. I can't _describe_ how much it hurts when your brachial plexus gets wounded. Take the worst stabbing pain you've ever felt, like stepping on a rusty nail or piercing your hand deeply with a sewing needle. Multiply it by twenty. It's worse than that.

The dragon lady grinned, revealing rows of yellowed, mossy teeth. "You do as _we_ say in the castle. You don't give orders anymore, half-blood."

I glanced at my shoulder, where, miraculously, no blood flowed. The silver claw she'd launched at me was still embedded in the skin, though. I eased it out, wanting nothing more than to scream. But I couldn't scream--I couldn't let her know how much it hurt. I threw the claw to the floor and look the empousai in the eye.

"There's a washroom to the left," she suggested, swishing away. Her tails made a scaly sound as they ran across the stone.

Okay. So I ended up changing clothes. As hard as I'd tried to pretend that empousai claw hadn't hurt, let me tell you: it did_. _I'd go with the dress.

It was the most over-the-top ensemble in the world, if you're curious. I looked like Marie Antoinette or Anne Boleyn on International Let's-Wear-Burgundy Day. As much as I wanted Luke back (see? I admitted it), I really hoped that Kronos--not Luke--had this sort of personal taste.

Another empousai was waiting for me. Of course.

This was was quieter, though, saying nothing as she slithered past corriders and dining halls and prisons. I decided I liked this better than the first.

When we came to a silvery archway, she stopped.

"Is this where I leave?" I asked her, pointing to the room inside.

She blinked at me.

"Right," I nodded. "Got it."

I took a few steps inside (difficult when you're in that kind of a dress)...and I had to stop. As sordidly gothic as the rest of this building was, the architecture in this room was _amazin_g_. _Creamy peach marble floors led to a ribbed, domed ceiling, on which freizes of angels and gods and goddesses were painted in all their glory. Huge floor-to-ceiling windows, at least two stories high, gazed out on the thrashing sea below. A white piano stood in the corner, and a huge banquet table in the center.

But...something was off. The piano played on its own, without a pianist. The angels didn't look heavenly--they looked full of malice. And the painted gods weren't gods at all.

Titans. They were titans.

The worst part just sat there, ridiculously handsome, waiting for me at the banquet table.

"So you're Annabeth Chase," Luke said in a velvety voice, tossing a silver fork into the air and making it fall down in slow motion. "You're exactly as lovely as Luke promised you were. Come in. I have a _deliciously _intruiging proposition for you."


	6. In Deep Water

**This chapter was kind of **_**GROSS **_**to write. Not because of anything like a lemon, but because...uh...it was just creepy.  
I think next chapter will be ever creepier.  
Holy schist.**

* * *

I flinched when Luke...Kronos...whoever spoke. I mean, wouldn't _you_? This was my best and oldest friend. The first person I ever really trusted. My first...um...crush.

And here he was, looking like an evil duke from the 18th century and speaking with a cold edge in his voice. This was beyond creepy. This was a bad horror movie.

"What--what did you want to talk about?" I asked, though it was admittedly in a monotone. I gave myself credit for being able to speak at all.

Luke just grinned even wider and tapped his fingers together. "Why so serious, child? Perhaps I just wanted to share your company."

He waved a hand at the cushioned seat across from him, and the chair pushed itself back.

I glowered at him. "I'm not a _child_. I'm almost your age."

"I'm thousands of years old," Luke/Kronos said blithely. "And Luke's body is seven years older than yours. Maybe you should have thought of that before you started drooling after him like a lovesick puppy."

He smiled at my furious stare.

"See?" he said. "There's _nothing_ I don't know, Annabeth. Save yourself a little trouble and sit down."

I was about to snap back, but the jingle of my charm bracelet reminded me of something. There _was _something he didn't know. And I needed to play along until I could find a chance to put the poison--I mean, elixir--in his drink.

I smiled as sweetly as I could. "Sure," I said, stepping over to the chair and taking a seat.

"So. How's your little camp?" Luke's razor-voice asked. "I understand it took quite a blow after our little surprise attack last summer..."

"Not a problem," I said coolly. "It's better than ever now. We found some Callistan energy in the fall. Remember? Didn't you have your thugs chasing after us for, like, a month?"

Luke sat back in his seat, annoyed. "I do, actually. It was quite aggravating. You're a clever girl, thinking about Callisto's stars. Well done."

"It was mostly Percy," I said defensively.

He waved his hand away. "Let's not talk about Percy right now. He'll get what he deserves eventually. Just like your beloved horse-man," he motioned for a caraffe of water to fill the glass next to my place. "Water, Annabeth?"

I stood up so quickly I knocked over the water glass. "What did you do to Chiron?" I demanded, my stomach in knots.

"Tsk. If you didn't want water, you could have just said so. It's not even alcoholic. They're bringing out the wine later."

"_What did you do?_"

He rolled his eyes. "_Chiron_. That ungrateful son of mine. I'm sure he makes me sound like a monster to you easily impressed half-bloods."

"Maybe you are a monster," I suggested, still seething about Chiron.

"Not at all. I've been trying to overthrow a warped system that's been ruining the world for millenia," Luke, I mean Kronos, said, sipping his water. "You're supposed to be smart. Think about it. Think about Zoe Nightshade, Bianca di Angelo, all of the half-bloods killed. More than that, think about the terror and destruction in this world. Torture, even terrorism. You think the gods are so powerful? Why didn't they lift a finger to stop it? It's not a question of _ability_, Annabeth. It's a question of will. The gods care for nothing but themselves--they've proved it time and time again."

"What about my mother?" I asked. Okay, so I was being sassy.

"Your mother is an exception," he allowed. "But it does no good. Her misplaced loyalty just continues the gods' rule of terror."

I gripped the sides of my chair tightly, reminding myself that I still had to look at least _kind _of calm, or this whole plan would be for nothing. "You're wrong," I told him. "And if you think _you_ could do any better--"

"I can," he said. Remember that smile he'd been wearing the whole time? Yeah, it had vanished by now. "You have no idea. The world needs change. And that's exactly what I'm bringing."

I ignored the fact that he was trying to sound like Barack Obama. "You're not all-powerful, Kronos," I whispered. "You have weaknesses, just like the gods."

Luke's serious face got a little less stony, and he smirked. "You're right, in a way. I don't have my own body. I'd thought Luke would be completely obedient to my will, but he's been...difficult, lately."

I frowned, genuinely interested. "How?"

He shrugged Luke's shoulders. "Spasms. Seizures. Lengths of time when he regains control. It's terribly interfering, to tell you the truth."

_Way to go, Luke_, I thought.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I'm telling you this little secret," he said, his eyes twinkling with vice.

I swallowed, nervous. "Uhh..."

"Worry no more. I'll tell you," he leaned forward, over the banquet table. I could see the highest peaks of waves crashing behind him, beyond the French windows of the banquet hall. "Access to Luke's little half-blood mind is fascinating. You can learn all sorts of human weaknesses he has. And even though he's recently changed his mind about serving me, I believe I've found one way to keep him from resisting."

"Oh boy," I muttered, my heart thumping away in my chest.

Luke-Kronos-whoever grinned. "Exactly, Annabeth. _You_."

CREEP ALERT! CREEP ALERT!

"There's so much I can offer you, in exchange for keeping Luke's foolish plans of rebellion at bay," he continued. "Influence. Power beyond anything the gods ever had. You know you can do better than they can--why not take the chance? Become my consort and I'll let you have it," he sat back in his chair, obviously thinking he'd done his job well. "What do you say?"

I opened my mouth, not knowing how on earth I was going to respond to that. But luckily I came up with an astoundingly witty reply at the last second:

"Um. Can I go to the bathroom?"

He looked at me in utter disbelief. "_Now_?"

"It's an emergency," I explained.

He rolled his eyes. "_Humans_. Fine. No trying to escape the castle."

I dashed from my seat at lightning speed. But obviously, I was not running because I had to, you know, go. I was running _partly_ because, well, what do you say when a Titan--older than the universe itself--asked you to be his...ew...consort?!

But mostly because I needed to make it to the kitchen. Fast.

That elixir in my charm bracelet was practically begging to be used.

I'd passed the kitchen on my way into the banquet hall, so I got there in no time. Only problem was, about ten monsters (of varying size and stupidity) were in there already, cooking souffles, roast turkey, and something so disgusting I'd rather not describe it.

"The half-blood?" a telekhine sneered, peering over the oven at me. "What's _she_ doing here?"

I tried to look like I was going to be sick. "I think I'm gonna throw up," I said, acting woozy and clutching my stomach. "Anybody have a bowl?"

I swear, the room was empty before you could say "upchuck".

Somebody was dumb enough to leave out the wine--a very nice bottle of 4032 B.C. Merlot--and the two glasses on a silver serving plate. I latched the kitchen door shut (not that I needed it; everybody had run way down the hall, anyway) and tiptoed to the glasses. Holding up my charm bracelet, I quickly flicked the tiny box open.

A bright, searing white light filled the kitchen as it opened. Praying desperately that nobody could see, I tapped the elixir from the box into the wine bottle. Nothing seemed to happen--no explosion or anything. I hoped that was a good sign. Only problem was, now, the poisoned wine would be in _both_ of our glasses.

Note to self: stay away from the wine glass, unless you want your soul ripped painfully from your body.

"All clear!" I called down the hall before sprinting back to the banquet room. "False alarm!"

I got back to Kronos before he noticed I'd been up to something. I think. Then again, aren't girls supposed to take, like, eight billion years in the bathroom? Fixing their hair and stuff?

He was standing when I got back--leaning against the huge windows, gazing at the sea as if it held some message for only him. I sat down in my old seat, happy to have a little distance between us.

"Kronos," I said cheerfully. It was a _lot _easier to be all peppy and easygoing, now that I'd successfully spiked his drink.

With, you know, poison. Not roofies. I'm not a sicko.

"What were we discussing?" I asked.

"My offer," he said, his eyes still fixed on the ocean. "Join me, and gain the universe."

"Uh, yeah, about that," I said slowly, craning my neck toward the kitchen. "Kinda hard to make a decision when I'm so..._thirsty_."

He didn't even flinch. He snapped Luke's fingers, and two rouge harpies scuttled along--carrying the silver tray, with the bottle. _The _bottle_. _This was going to be easier than I thought.

"Pour," he commanded the harpy. She did as she was told, holding the cup precariously. Like it was a firecracker. She was obviously waiting for him...waiting for something else he had to say.

He did. "Taste," he told her.

She took a swig with a trembling hand. I'd never, ever seen a harpy tremble before; something told me that I wasn't the first to try to poison Kronos. For a horrible, fleeting second, I was afraid she'd drop dead, or start writhing in pain at her soul being torn apart--then Luke would jump from his seat and point at me and yell, "_Arrest her!_", and that would be the end of this mission as we knew it. As well as the end of Annabeth Chase.

But none of this happened--actually, after she realized she wasn't dead, she was sort of licking her lips a bit. "Delicious, master," she croaked with glee.

As if he cared. "Fine. Fill two cups," he ordered.

_Well, duh,_ I thought. _Monsters don't have souls. _Our elixir would be about as toxic as Kool-Aid to someone like a harpy. Nice poison-testing methods, Lord of Time.

Luke--ah, Kronos--took a gentlemanly sip of his wine and waited for me to do this same.

Wait, why wasn't he falling over in agony? Why wasn't the elixir working?

_Why wasn't the elixir working?!_

"Well?" he said after a minute. "Weren't you thirsty?"

"But--but it's _alcoholic_," I tried, as if I'd just now realized that wine did, in fact, contain alcohol. Come on, poison. Do your stuff!

He turned from the window and kicked his old chair over with surprising force. "I've tried to be merciful," he snarled, the sharp Kronos-edge in his voice more noticeable than ever. "But you can't stall me any longer. Get up!"

There was no question about it. I got up.

"Come here," he ordered, his voice still dangerously on-the-edge.

I walked to the window, even though my heart was doing jumping-jacks, and shivered as he seized my shoulders and leaned close.

"You've forgotten where you are, Annabeth," he growled in my ear. "Appearences are deceiving. But make no mistake--_I am not Luke_. There _is_ no way to trick me. You will not walk out of here with a compromise."

I felt the blood rush from my fingers, leaving them white and icy. The room was spinning, like I was cross-eyed and dizzy at the same time. Elixir, _please work_.

"I always, always, _always_ get what I want," he reiterated, pulling back so he could look in my eyes. I couldn't stand it--they were awful, pure gold, an awful clash with Luke's face. Not Luke's blue eyes I knew. Not the eyes I'd spent hours looking into, years dreaming about. I tried to pull my head away from them, but he yanked me back.

_The poison...it isn't working..._

"You're intelligent. Loyal. Beautiful. And right now, Luke wants you," he breathed, twining one of Luke's cold hands behind my neck. I stiffened.

_...you lose, Annabeth..._

He looked me straight in the eye again. "And so do I," he said.

Then Kronos--the king of heaven, god of time, ruler of Titans--decided to kiss me.


	7. Confused

**A/N: If you haven't seen the new trailers, you don't deserve to call yourself a Percy Jackson fan.**

**They're amazing. Okay, so Annabeth was at Kronos' castle-place and he was about to---EWWWW--kiss her, right? **

**Yeah.**

**

* * *

  
**

Having not kissed many boys--any boys?--besides Percy Jackson in my whole life, I guess _technically_ I have nothing else to compare it to. But still--this kiss was bordering on violence.

Kronos had seized the back of my head, twisting Luke's fingers through my blond hair and pulling me closer. He didn't even notice that I was trying to pull back. It was easiest, I found, if I kept my eyes tightly shut, trying to block everything out...but I could still _feel_. Feel cold hands on my neck. Feel cold lips crushed against mine. Feel how completely, totally, utterly _wrong_ this whole scenario was.

I struggled against his grasp, but it was literally about as helpful as struggling against a straitjacket. I don't even think he noticed my wriggling. What he did notice, though, was my lips' passive response. I certainly wasn't kissing him back---and he could tell. Furious, he pulled me closer, much closer, trying to force me to respond to him, to respond with passion, any kind of passion.

I tried kicking him. It didn't work.

If you were thinking, like I was thinking, that this couldn't possibly get any worse, BZZZT (as in the sound of a "wrong" buzzer on a game show), you were wrong. It could. And it did, when Kronos began to move Luke's hands from the back of my head. Yes. His hands. Moving down, above my waist, but below my neck, in a place I'd _never_ let Percy, you know, put his hands.

I couldn't help it--I screamed. It was a muffled scream, considering he still had my lips suctioned onto his, but it was better than nothing. He had me paralyzed, pressed up against him so tightly I couldn't move my hands to slap _his_ hands away.

I thought it wouldn't do anything, but I was wrong a second time.

My scream changed something. It changed...well, Kronos.

It wasn't me hallucinating. Kronos' control over Luke was fading away. Luke's face--which, duh, I could see, ever since I opened my eyes to scream bloody murder--visibly changed. The hard look of his eyes softened, his skin regaining its color. His hands slipped down from...well, you know. They rested gently on my waist, and they were _warm_. Not the icy hands Kronos usually controlled. His _lips_ were warm, too, and as gentle as his hands. It wasn't a battle any longer, but a kiss. A very, very tender kiss.

I'm not completely stupid. It wasn't like it took me five years to realize the obvious: I wasn't kissing Kronos anymore. Whether the potion had finally worked, or whether Luke had somehow relapsed into taking control of his own body--I was kissing _Luke_.

And what was I thinking?

Was I thinking, _Hey, Annabeth, now that he doesn't have you in a death-grip anymore, shouldn't you quit? Remember the fact that you have a fiancé? Remember Percy? Remember how Luke betrayed you? HUH?!_

That's not what I was thinking at all.

All at once, a million daydreams, beginning from when I was eleven and twelve, rushed into my head. Me, dreaming of my first date with Luke; dreaming of being his smart, clever girlfriend; dreaming of getting married to him. And it was all here, and it was real--even if it was just for a moment. Me plus Luke. Not a dream.

_What was wrong with me?!_

Luke kissed me a second longer, than pulled back slowly. "Annabeth," he murmured weakly. "My sweet, unlucky Annabeth."

He choked out half of a sob and pulled my head onto his shoulder, hugging me close.

"I'm so, so sorry," he croaked. "Oh, gods, Annabeth, I'm sorry..."

I hugged him tighter. "I know it wasn't you," I whispered.

He stroked my hair, shuddering with the tears he was trying to hold back. He held onto me like I was his last hope, his last link to the real world.

"What's happened to me?" he asked in a hushed, terrified voice. Suddenly, he was fifteen again, confused and scared, and not knowing where his life would go. "I know what he's doing. I always know what he's thinking. But I can't--I can't do anything to stop it."

"It's all right," I assured him, patting his back awkwardly. "We're helping you. You'll be--you'll be back to normal soon."

He caught his breath, still breathing quickly, trying not to cry. "Don't lie to me," he said, his voice broken.

"I'm not," I promised. "I swear...you're already halfway back."

"I don't have much time," he said. "I can only hold on for a couple minutes at most..."

"Listen," I said, grabbing his shoulders. "If you change back, I'm going to have to run. Try everything you can to get control again, because I'd really like _not_ to die. If you can stall him long enough, the...potion we gave you should knock you-slash-him out, in about five or ten minutes."

"You gave me a potion?" he asked, confused.

"I gave_ Kronos_ the potion," I said apologetically. "Sorry. It's kind of a long story."

He gripped my hands tighter. "And it'll change me back?"

"Yes," I said confidentally, even though I meant to say _I sure hope so_.

He held me close again, shaking. "I don't want to do it anymore," he promised. "I swear...anything but this...you have no idea, the things he wants to do...."

He shuddered violently.

"You'll change," I said, trying to soothe him again. Oddly, he didn't say anything. He just remained still for a second, then his hands began to move from my back.

Then seized my throat.

_Crap!_ I really, really couldn't afford to get strangled right now! Why did he have to change back into Kronos so fast?! That was all of, what, thirty seconds with Luke?! Unless, you know, he hadn't really changed back. But that was doubtful, that _Luke _was trying to strangle me, except maybe as revenge for being so annoying when I was a little kid.

I gripped his wrists and tugged them away with all my might, but they barely moved. I hardly got any more air to breathe.

"Smart," Kronos' cold voice said approvingly. Luke's face came up again, and I could see his hollow-looking gold eyes. Definitely Kronos-mode. "But a little too loyal to your failures of friends. And unfortunately, Annabeth, it's all-or-nothing in this castle. You've chosen nothing."

He smirked and started to tighten his grip. I drew my fist back to punch him in the nose.

But, curiously, my neck went un-strangled and his nose went un-punched, all thanks to the fact that we were standing next to a window.

_CRASHSHSHSH!_

In one loud, explosive second, the huge floor-to-ceiling French window shattered into a zillion pieces beside us. Kronos and I froze for just a moment, but it was long enough for Percy Jackson to come soaring through the now-open window and bowl over Luke's body with hundreds of gallons of sea water.

Kronos flew across the ballroom, allowing Percy to slide in on the marble and catch me before I hit the hard floor.

"Well, hey," he said, only a little anticlimatically, holding me in his arms like Shaggy would hold Scooby.

I stared at Luke's dead-looking body, splayed only a few hundred feet away. "You killed him," I whispered in horror.

"Don't be dumb," he said. "He's just knocked out. Maybe if we're lucky we can just pile him in the boat and get back to camp."

I turned my sour face from Luke back to Percy. "I thought I made you_ swear_ you wouldn't follow me," I said, trying to disguise my guilt.

Dammit. I'd just been kissing Luke...with my own free will. _Please, _gods, never let Percy find out.

"I didn't follow you," he told me angelically. "Look at your bracelet."

I glanced down at the little charm bracelet. Nothing much was different--except the little, red coral Riptide charm was glowing a fierce white.

"It only does that when you're in trouble," he said. "And then it shows up in an Iris-Message and tells us where you are."

I looked at him, open-mouthed. "You actually did something clever," I noted.

"Yeah. And me and Grover came _all _the way here by a frickin' _boat_," he said.

"Grover came? Where are we, anyway?" I asked.

"Somewhere off the coast of South Carolina."

"I can't believe you'd trace me like that," I accused, still covering up my shame. Then I kissed his nose, trying to grin. "But I forgive you anyway."

"I saved your butt," he reminded me. "You were, like, two seconds from being a strangled chicken."

"I was getting ready to punch him," I said defensively.

"You definitely took your time."

"Look who's talking!" I cried. "Nice waiting-till-the-last-second, Mr. Hero. What was with waiting to burst through the window _until my face started turning blue?_"

Percy smiled broadly. "Uh, dramatic effect?"

I smiled, but soon stopped. Heavy breathing began, soft but sure, from the other side of the room.

"Run," I whispered, hopping out of his arms and sprinting toward the archway again.


	8. Thanks for reading!

A/N: Aloha everybody! Meridith here. So I was in the middle of writing the next chap for this when I get an e-mail from Artsiege (well, in actual fact, it was a review, but I got an alert e-mail). In essence, she politely told me that this story has gone way downhill and I've effectively mocked/ruined Percy and Annabeth's love forever.

That's something I never wanted to do, because even though I don't really care about Percabeth anymore, a lot of people still DO. And it sucks when somebody completely ruins a pairing you like.

Thank you to Artsiege, PercyLovesAnnabeth85, Honest101 etc. for being…you know, honest. And thanks to everyone else for reading this piece of shit this far and being such nice people in your reviews.

STORY DISCONTINUED.

**EDIT: Haha, wow you guys. Let's cut the crap, you can't be that disappointed that it's over, it was shit to begin with. Don't blame the 3 bad reviews or whatever. It's not like I decided OH HEY THESE 3 REVIEWS ARE OBVIOUSLY MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE OTHER 500. More like, I'd known this was bad for quite some time but decided to continue it because I liked getting complimentary reviews (see? You guys are opium to me! )**

**Anyway. So I'd forgotten about this until I got a couple honest reviews that were like, "Meridith, this sucks, you could write better, quit posting this to feed your ego," which I totally was and that's not fair to any of you either, you're intelligent and deserve intelligently-written stories, not fluff without plot or meaning like this. **

**On second thought, I won't delete it though, that doesn't accomplish anything either and if this is somebody's guilty pleasure, well who am I to judge? :)**

**Lots of love, Mer. **

**PS--but if anyone else likes to write out there, would you be interested in a mini (like 2 or 3 person) writer's circle? Like we could exchange stories. I've got something with Tudor time-travel and something with a mermaid assassination attempt that I'm writing. But both might be as crappy as this.**

**But they've also got some action (not like that, sickos) and budding romance goin' on, so there. It could be fun. I want to read y'all's works as well.**

**PM ME OR REVIEW AND WE CAN CHAT BECAUSE I LOVE CHATTING WITH THE GREAT PEOPLE ON ! **


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